THE POWER AND POLITICAL CULTURE IN PERSPECTIVE OF KELILEH WA DEMNEH (PERSIAN VERSION OF THE PANCHATANTRA)

Kelileh wa Demneh has always been regarded as an important book in India, Iran and among Islamic Societies from different perspectives. This importance emerges from the point that one can explicitly see the roles of three great cultures of Oriental world namely India, Iran and Arab territories. Most of the stories in Kelileh wa Demneh are allegorical and stated by animals. Incorporating animal characters into Kelileh wa Demneh is due to its political content. The stories in Kelileh wa Demneh mostly reflect the triangle of power (India, Iran and Islamic World) in the East and, thus, represent the political culture, the power sources, and its impact on social strata in its best form. Studying the content of Kelileh wa Demneh helps in analyzing the structure of then era political culture and its great impacts on social and individual behavior of the people. The beliefs of the modern theorists illustrate the point that the power and the political culture immensely impact the social and individual behavior of the people, and the pyramid of the power creation in society leads to emergence of some kinds of behaviors and thoughts that directly influence the people’s behavior, and even their behavior and relationship with other societies. In other words, the political culture of a society has direct connection with human relationships. In the present paper the power and political culture and their impacts on the behavior and character of the Eastern society will be surveyed resorting to the content of the Kelileh wa Demneh